The deviantART community is incredibly deep and diverse. Every day, amazing art is produced that appeals to all tastes. Our goal in sharing and exposing the deviations in deviantART's Popular section is to showcase this depth and diversity as convincingly and fairly as we can.

Fair Exposure

DeviantART's algorithm for Popular browse results is known as Fair Exposure. The goal is to maximize the display of the most popular deviations in a variety of topics (styles/genres/art forms). Fair Exposure increases the probability that someone will see something that they personally like in Popular results. In short, with Fair Exposure, the community is exposed to a varied cross-section of deviantART. It uses an algorithm that is "fair" in nature -- meaning not biased toward any topic, yet still based on popularity.

Why is Fair Exposure needed?

Ranking deviations based on raw popularity alone is something that deviantART hasn't done since 2008. While using raw numbers has some benefits, it also has many problems. One major issue is that it inherently favors the already popular -- making that which is popular more likely to be seen, gaining even more popularity.

Different styles and types of art appeal to different deviants, and those deviants use the Favourites system in different ways. For example, fan art enthusiasts are more likely to Favourite a deviation based on subject, whereas, fine art photography lovers are more likely to Favourite based on technique. Thus, comparing the number of Favourites on one type of a deviation to another is like comparing apples to oranges.

Fair Exposure's task is to strike a balance between showcasing depth (i.e. deviations that are popular with many individual deviants) and breadth (i.e. deviations that are popular with a wide variety of deviantART sub-communities). We do this with an algorithm, the components of which are adjusted from time to time to produce an inherently fair outcome in terms of art that would be of interest to the broadest spectrum of deviants.

Fair Exposure 1.0, 2.0, and 2.1

Version 1.0 of Fair Exposure was launched in February 2008, and the next set of updates (2.0) came in December 2011. Fair Exposure 1.0's computation became slower and slower with every deviation added to deviantART. While it executed in a reasonable amount of time in 2008, it was no longer updating fast enough for the front page. However, Fair Exposure 2.0's computation was structured differently and was faster.

While Fair Exposure 2.0 had been in development for quite a while, some of our more sophisticated ideas weren't able to make it into the initial release. The changes in Fair Exposure 2.1, made in January 2012, are very minor -- mostly code reorganization, and a few bug fixes that addressed rare edge cases that sometimes influenced front page results. We know this new version of Fair Exposure is a better representation of the world-class art produced by the deviantART community.

We have a variety of improvements coming down the pipeline -- in particular, improvements having to do with topic "accuracy" (i.e. becoming better at detecting the topics of a deviation) and "popularity" (i.e. detecting whether a deviation is "popular" amongst a niche group or has broader appeal).

Fair Exposure 2.1 is not inherently more "random" than Fair Exposure 1.0 was. The most significant determinate of order is still in deviants' submission/viewing/Favouriting patterns in general. Similarly, all determinations of popularity are made by looking at the data, with no artificial fudge factors biasing towards one topic or away from another. In particular, it does not replace art from a "popular" deviant (or topic) with art from a randomly-selected "unpopular" deviant. Fair Exposure 2.1 explicitly attempts to select "popular" deviations that showcase as many "popular" topics as possible, whereas, in Fair Exposure 1.0, there was no explicit goal to showcase a wide variety of topics. This does mean that if, for example, a deviation that showcases "people" and "photography" is displayed, the next several deviations are unlikely to be other "people" or "photography" deviations, unless they are also extremely popular.

Sharing the Love

Changes to Fair Exposure and Popular browse are in the interest of highlighting the best from a wide range of deviants and showcasing an array of styles and genres. Keep in mind that you can always browse by your particular interest using the category tree or join a group that matches your interests. We're a large community, and with Fair Exposure 2.1, we hope to bring more deviants into the spotlight.

I don't like it. I believe it's...and pardon the expression...'stupid'. You don't go to look at "Most Popular" and not see them and see things that aren't popular. How does an image with 4 views and 2 faves make the popular list and an image with 100 views and 20 faves not? I browse at the popular, because those images are there for a reason, I look and learn...or I see something done uniquely enough that rates it being popular. It's a bar that you want to reach because you did good work the "Browse more like" is where Fair exposure should be used at but not in the most popular category in the specific genre.

This isnt fair. This is dA being politically correct because they're too afraid to hurt the feelings of undiscovered artists. A lot of "popularity" has to do with MARKETING and whats NOT FAIR is expecting those who worked for their exposure to be pushed to the side for those who are "too shy". This is so wrong.

I thought the popular tab was for those who ARE popular. The undiscovered tab is for those who make beautiful work and could use the recognition. Your fairness is there in that undiscovered tab. It's wrong to take the popular result from the artists that are popular that put a lot of hard work into their art. I have found it annoying recently when my undiscovered results are looking the same as my popular results when I log in to check for new cool art daily.

But what about artist that are popular anyways? They still need face time too - even though they have large numbers of followers and pageviews there might not be people that have seen their work yet? Completely removing them off in order to be 'fair' isn't really fair at all . . . what would in fact perhaps be a little more fair is an up and coming section vs oldie but goodie type scenario. Where you have the little known but popular artists rising up and the artist we know and love show cased, even if they're in two different tabs. So then you wouldn't limit the exposure to either rising popular artists and already popular artists.

I understand what 'fair exposure' is trying to do, but it is failing to do it. Telling someone that they're art is 'too popular' to be featured is like going up to some buff guy at the gym and telling him to go home because out of shape people feel bad when they look at him. Can't there just be another page for upcoming popular artists instead of just turning all the big names away?

I think this is terrible :/. I have worked so very hard for years to get my work on the front page. My freelancing business depends on me getting new exposure to new viewers. If I spend a tonne of energy and effort on something, I want it to be seen! My efforts are just as valid as any other, I shouldn't be handycapped because of all the hard work I've put in to get followers.

I was wondering why my work wasn't even appearing on the front page of artisan crafts, let alone da.

You call this fair? Fair, as in removing people who have earned the right to appear on the front page because they have studiedly gained popularity over time. To say "you're too popular" for the popular front page, where does that make sense?

I'm an artist who has never seen the front page and I have 2,000 watchers and 300,000 page views and I find this unfair to deserving artists. Return the front page as it is or make a new tab for popular upcoming artists and leave the well knowns alone

I have worked hard on my art for 3 three years, I have over 15,000 watchers and now you said my art has to be buried because of "fair exposure". How is that fair to me. Art is subjective, a handful of admin can not determine what I like to look at. Popularity can only be determined by the raw numbers. If raw numbers puts me on the front page than that is what people want to see. If you want to make a fair exposure tab for everyone else, that is the only way to be fair to me. Otherwise I have no reason to stay on DA if my art is going to be buried.

This algorithm should be called "Unfair Exposure" because certainly there's nothing fair about it. This algorithm screws up the whole idea behind browsing the "most popular" deviations. Please be smart (and fair) and fix this mess.

I understand the thought behind this concept, and I agree with your reasoning. I just don't agree with how it's being done. Let the popular artists stay popular, since they've earned it. They've spent a lot of time and dedication to their work, and many are paid for their passion because of their dedication. If now they are mingled with the "unpopular," it's likely their work and pay will fade away, along with their passion. Yes, I know what it's like to be an unpopular artist (I still am) and hope for some exposure, but this is being done in the wrong way. Those who are popular are popular for good reason, and they are likely the reason other users keep coming back to dA. Make them unknown and traffic here will slowly fade.

Meanwhile, us unpopular artists have the Undiscovered page which is a great invention, but it should be given attention second to most popular. We who are unpopular also have "random deviant," "Newest," among other ways to be known. What do the popular artists have? "Most Popular" that is now no longer showing the most popular artwork?

I understand the idea behind the system, but this just isn't working. The ordering of deviations in the "popular x hours" categories does not follow any ordering that any sane person could come up with as anything that would reasonably correspond to the word "popular". There is absolutely no perceivable logic to deviations with fewer views, favorites, and downloads ranking systematically (i.e. for extended periods of time) above deviations with more of these. If DeviantArt insists on having more randomness so as to increase visibility for certain artists that would otherwise not be seen, then just add randomness and stop calling the category "most popular". Or come up with a reasonable algorithm, that at least respects psychometric dominance relations (i.e., if a deviation has more of everything, it should rank above a deviation that has less of everything). This does not live up to the standard I have come to expect from this site.

I understand why you guys thought this was a good idea, however I do not believe that this system is fair. Now that undiscovered is here, use that for the unknown artist. You are punishing hardworking artist with that new system.I do not find it fair that I worked extremely hard to gain watchers and people who like my art, but now because of this “fair” system, I’m not popular enough to override it, but I’m too popular to get a boost from the system. This leaves me unable to grow. After months of not being active on DA because of college, I’ve found it quite difficult to find new watchers since my old watchers have gotten used to my not posting. Now, when I upload something, even if I have 100 favorites in 1 hour, my art will appear on the 2nd page of its category while the first page is filled with things that have less than 30 favorites. I find this incredibly unfair. It takes away the ability of the artist to reach a new constituency and I find that highly unfair. You’ve continued to give me the same answer each time. That is why I turned my ticket into a different section. I was tired of being handled by someone who was being condescending to my worries. The fair exposure system was introduced in 2013, and I never had those issues. This only began in the past few weeks. I would like it if you would actually look into why I’m getting shafted by the system.

've been having this issue for a while. Anytime I upload my drawings don't show up on the browsing page. I let the help desk know and the same guy keeps marking my tickets as solved and talking down to me. I just want to know why my pieces don't show up based on number of favorites anymore.In this particular case, I'm showing up but my piece has been unfairly pushed down even though it's doing much better than the one that is placed in the first position. This does not happen to other deviants.

I'm starting to feel as though someone is trolling me on this website. Is this some kind of joke? This isn't fair.

We get that they are trying to recognize unknown artists, But some people aren't even artists! Theres nothing to see on the Popular page which makes me have to log out, look at deviantations then log back in and find it. Its such an anoying processssss GAAAAAAAAAAH. Please return the old system.

I'm confused about the results of the search. Were there any changes made recently? Because I don't get the logic behind the results.

I was looking for "Popular All Time" deviations. A deviation from 2008 with Comments: 36 // Favourites: 382 // Views: 10,565 is ranked higher than for example one that was posted in 2010 with Comments: 309 // Favourites: 829 // Views: 12,121.

Why?

HelpDesk answer: "The main gallery of deviantART has for sometime now been showing you a special browsing mode. This new browsing feature is called "Fair Exposure"...

I asked again: "I'm sorry, but that doesn't answer my question. There have to be some changes within the last week. I noticed it - and others did too. You might have a look at the forum. There's a thread about this subject.I noticed it, because several of my deviations and some of my friend's were listed on the first result page. From one day to the next, some have vanished completely while others dropped down at least 10 or more places. We did not have any sudden activities. Neither of us got suddenly lots of comments or favs. We always used the same keywords for the search.

And again: How can a deviation that got more comments and more favs and more views be more popular than one that's two years older with less comments+favs+views? I point back to my original question. I you think it helps I can send you a screenshot of the old resultes compared to the ones I get now.Also the results of the search jumped back between the old and the new constellation several times in the last few days. That means to me that there either is a bug somewhere or something was changed."

Help Desk: "Fair exposure is constantly evolving dependant on popular deviations. I assure you nothing has 'changed' in the way this works it is just making way for other deviations to be considered as popular. "

Sorry guys. This is stupid. You either have no idea what you're talking about or you think a lot of users here are blind or stupid. When I read the comments here, a lot of people are everything but satisfied!

If 2 deviations are both in the 8 hours and 24 hours most popular, how come deviation 1 can be better in the 8 hours category, and deviation 2 better in the 24 hours category? wouldn't it make sense to maintain relative ranking across categories?

Oh I'm not the only one complaing, lol. A wrong pony drawing was before of some picture of mine. Maybe it is time to leave this place, don't see much difference with the newest, 8 hrs or 24 hrs browse section.

A good friend messaged me the other day, thrilled beyond belief because she'd spotted some of my writing on the first page of the "Most Popular of All Time" for the Literature section. (Clearly, I have lovely friends.) It's cool, yes, but I had suspicions because that one piece of mine really hadn't gotten much (comparatively) in the way of views, comments, or favorites.

So I did some searching and arrived here. After reading this article, I'm not sure whether I should be sad because my being featured on the first page is the result of an artificial equation spitting out my relatively unpopular work to diversify the Popular page.

Do I actually have anything to brag about? Do I have to tell my friend "sorry, but I'm not actually awesome, dA just needs me for the sake of 'Fair Exposure'"? I'm confused, especially about how this applies to the Literature sections.

Because of this system, every time a picture of a girls half exposed ass/breasts gets 13k views by all the guys who find that amusing, I'm forced to scroll past at least 10 every time I dig among the supposed "top works" submitted over the last few hours/days.

I barely ever find something I like in the first few 10s of deviations..

Why don't you guys just do it like it was years ago: [link] with the different sections?one for newest, one for popular and one for fair exposure and people could click on "browse" and view more from that section. Just an idea.

^ I like this person. Personally, the main (and often only) reason that I search terms in the DeviantArt search section, is to find top professional quality art for inspiration, and so that I can learn from their techniques.

With this new "Fair Exposure" implemented on all of the search options, not only is it hard to find top professional quality deviations, but sometimes I have pages of deviations that are all by the same artist who has done several deviations of one particular character (for example when I search for the term "Wolf Warrior"). This would be fine if I liked their stuff and I was looking in their gallery, but I had to look through about 3+ pages before most of their stuff disappeared. Apart from anything, I don't think showing 3 pages of one persons work is very fair anyway.

Now finding high quality deviations using specific terms (like "Wolf Warrior") is very hard, and I am having to find my inspiration from elsewhere. It would be great if the Fair Exposure could be separated from the Popular so people can browse as they choose.

I don't think they actually fixed it. I still don't see the good artists on the first page. I see unknowns. Sometimes I don't even realize that people who's art I really love still post because their art gets pushed off he first page for being too popular.

Very very bad move. In order to appeal to the pre-teens, youve disenfranchised your core content creators. The new algorithm is chaos, as an art-appreciator I can no longer seek out the best of the month for my visual research.

There's nothing wrong with meritocratic ratings, if people desire more exposure - they should simply improve technique and networking like the rest of us did.

exactly. I worked hard when I was unpopular to get where I am now. Now, that I have a little bit of popularity, I am getting shafted by the system. It's so discouraging and makes me question y alligence to devaintart.

How does giving each category a more even exposure "appeal to preteens"? It's going to cut down on homogenization and monopolization of the front page by popular content such as anime or other fanart. I'd say that's a slant /away/ from preteens.

"they should simply improve technique and networking like the rest of us did."

You're not taking into account that some categories naturally get less attention than others. It's an uphill battle.

I asked how the popularity of deviations was determined and don't feel that any effort was made to answer my question. The "answer" given above sounds like an add for you new algorithm as opposed to an explanation of how deviations are chosen. Some of the searches that prompted my queery were specific (e.g. searching pin up in Traditional -> paintings -> people), while others were general (e.g. not using a search, just going Traditional -> paintings -> people, and seeing what popped up). Not only did I see pieces in the first few pages that were, in my opinion, sub-standard, but when I crunched numbers, it appeared that the dA community agreed with my assesment. I found one painting that had been on line for about 5 years, had 97 views, and 1 fave. This piece was in the first few pages of a search for which there were tens of thousands of results. Many (dozens) of similiar examples were found. While art is a highly subjective thing, I don't think many would argue that all works of art are equal in quality. I rarely use the dA search because I always feel like I'm wasting my time. I understand that you want exposure for all of the deviants on your site, but there are way too many rank amateurs (sometimes very rank) whose work is shown well before the work of established professionals whose deviations have far better numbers. It's not a matter of stroking the egos of the more popular artists on dA as much as it is paying respect to those who have earned their popularity by demonstrating artistic skills developed through years of intensive study. In spite of the advertisement above, I feel that your new search algorithm leaves a lot to be desired.